1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the field of devices for interfacing with a network medium, and method for determining and utilizing information regarding other nodes of the network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Network interfaces for connecting a node, for example including a computer, to a network, commonly include a physical layer device (PHY), which handles the actual transmission and reception of signals on the network medium.
It may be desirable to include multiple PHYs in a network interface, with the PHYs having different operating characteristics, for example sending differently-formatted frames of frames with different protocols, depending on the capabilities of the intended receiving node of the network. Accordingly, it may be desirable for the network interface to include multiple media access controllers (MACs), to monitor and control access to the network medium. The MACs may correspond to the different operating protocols that the PHYs are capable of providing.
It would be desirable to have means at a network node for gathering and utilizing information about the capabilities of other nodes on the network, in order to control selection of an active PHY from among the PHYs, to control selection of an active MAC from among the MACs, and/or to select the transmission rate or other characteristics of transmissions from the node.